Hello, a 16 year old Toyota with a little blue smoke and oil usage wouldn't be shocking to me. There could have been some kind of event that occurred to cause it to increase; hard to say.
The brake problem that came up is quite concerning; I would have an independent assessment done by a third party to see if there's some kind of workmanship concern involved.
Under no circumstances do I think it's a "trend" for "all" Toyotas.
Thanks for getting back to me. Sorry for delay in responding. The car has 66000 miles on it. I know from some research either the engine or catalytic converter can fail, but, would like to know In your opinion if monitoring the oil say monthly and filling up as needed can keep the car safely and effectively performing for years to come.
I also went to another "well reviewed" shop and he saw no blue smoke and said to just stay on top of this. Re brakes, the original shop put in a small piece of piping, a connector I guess, to stop the leak. I asked upon seeing this if that would hold up and was told by this shop it would, although told this is not considered the way to do this generally?? They did the rear brakes which I had told the first shop to monitor because I knew I had a certain percentage on them when I left Toyota's service department and which the second shop did not monitor so had brakes and drums (OEM) done in rear.
This second shop identified one other thing. Right side inner CV boot is leaking grease. Said it could be going on for a few years and may want to leave alone for now. Do you agree? Research says a variety of things. If decide to replace should do both sides?? Some say makes more economic sense to replace axle instead of just boot?? Some shops include wheel alignment in cost of axle/boot replacement, and what is your feeling about necessity of having an alignment after that?
All in all, this is tough on me, but harder to buy a new car, and once had a used car and wound up with a major steering issue so don't trust that.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you.
Oil consumption concerns at 66,000 miles is highly abnormal. Time will tell if there is a real concern or not. It's true: watch your oil level. If you are adding significant quantities of oil between oil changes -- I would consider this abnormal. A quart? Maybe. Several? No. The brake thing sounds kind of odd honestly. I don't know what could cause such a leak. And what kind of "repair" was done to solve it. For the CV boot, monitor it. When grease leaves the boot, corrosion can get in. You will likely need to replace the axle assembly at some point. Luckily these are usually relatively inexpensive. So, the research you have done seems good. I would not necessarily replace left and right, just the one with the leak. I do not see the need for wheel alignment when replacing the axle shaft. You can, and it's always a good idea, but you are not changing steering angles. Good luck.